‘We Need to Play With the Same Rules as Others’: Circular Fashion Start‐Ups and the Emerging Logic of Circularity

IF 13.3 1区管理学 Q1 BUSINESS

Business Strategy and The Environment Pub Date : 2025-09-11 DOI:10.1002/bse.70192

Ines Kaivonen, Nina Mesiranta, Elina Närvänen

{"title":"‘We Need to Play With the Same Rules as Others’: Circular Fashion Start‐Ups and the Emerging Logic of Circularity","authors":"Ines Kaivonen, Nina Mesiranta, Elina Närvänen","doi":"10.1002/bse.70192","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Due to its activities' severe environmental and social consequences, the fashion industry urgently needs transformation. The shift to a circular economy is widely recognised as a key solution, with circular fashion offering a pathway to reshape the industry's dominant linear model. Entrepreneurship and especially circular start‐ups play a crucial role in this transition. However, in fashion, moving towards circularity is not only a business shift but also an institutional transformation. As this transition involves navigating multiple and sometimes conflicting institutional logics, we examine how circular fashion start‐ups (CFSs) engage in institutional work to shape these logics. Based on 13 thematic interviews, we identify four key themes (aspiration for novelty, broadening the audience, revaluating fashion and redefining roles) through which CFSs legitimise their businesses within the linear fashion market system. Simultaneously, we show how these efforts contribute to the emergence of a distinct logic of circularity and provide useful managerial implications for practitioners.","PeriodicalId":9518,"journal":{"name":"Business Strategy and The Environment","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":13.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Business Strategy and The Environment","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.70192","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BUSINESS","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Due to its activities' severe environmental and social consequences, the fashion industry urgently needs transformation. The shift to a circular economy is widely recognised as a key solution, with circular fashion offering a pathway to reshape the industry's dominant linear model. Entrepreneurship and especially circular start‐ups play a crucial role in this transition. However, in fashion, moving towards circularity is not only a business shift but also an institutional transformation. As this transition involves navigating multiple and sometimes conflicting institutional logics, we examine how circular fashion start‐ups (CFSs) engage in institutional work to shape these logics. Based on 13 thematic interviews, we identify four key themes (aspiration for novelty, broadening the audience, revaluating fashion and redefining roles) through which CFSs legitimise their businesses within the linear fashion market system. Simultaneously, we show how these efforts contribute to the emergence of a distinct logic of circularity and provide useful managerial implications for practitioners.

查看原文本刊更多论文

“我们需要和别人玩同样的规则”：循环时尚初创企业和循环的新兴逻辑

由于其活动对环境和社会造成的严重后果，时尚产业迫切需要转型。向循环经济的转变被广泛认为是一个关键的解决方案，循环时尚为重塑该行业占主导地位的线性模式提供了一条途径。创业精神，特别是循环创业在这一转变中发挥着至关重要的作用。然而，在时尚界，走向循环不仅是一种商业转变，也是一种制度转型。由于这种转变涉及到多重的、有时是相互冲突的制度逻辑，我们研究了循环时尚初创企业（CFSs）是如何参与制度工作来塑造这些逻辑的。基于13个专题访谈，我们确定了四个关键主题（渴望新奇、扩大受众、重新评估时尚和重新定义角色），通过这些主题，CFSs在线性时尚市场体系中使其业务合法化。同时，我们展示了这些努力是如何促成一种独特的循环逻辑的出现，并为实践者提供有用的管理启示。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Business Strategy and The Environment Multiple-

CiteScore

22.50

自引率

19.40%

发文量

336

期刊介绍： Business Strategy and the Environment (BSE) is a leading academic journal focused on business strategies for improving the natural environment. It publishes peer-reviewed research on various topics such as systems and standards, environmental performance, disclosure, eco-innovation, corporate environmental management tools, organizations and management, supply chains, circular economy, governance, green finance, industry sectors, and responses to climate change and other contemporary environmental issues. The journal aims to provide original contributions that enhance the understanding of sustainability in business. Its target audience includes academics, practitioners, business managers, and consultants. However, BSE does not accept papers on corporate social responsibility (CSR), as this topic is covered by its sibling journal Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management. The journal is indexed in several databases and collections such as ABI/INFORM Collection, Agricultural & Environmental Science Database, BIOBASE, Emerald Management Reviews, GeoArchive, Environment Index, GEOBASE, INSPEC, Technology Collection, and Web of Science.